Thermal Desorption Units and On-Column Injection Capillary and Packed Columns for Gas Chromatography Units have been successfully utilized in a variety of systems, methods and techniques for the separating, analyzing, identifying and recording both volatile and semi-volatile components in complex materials.
Capillary and packed columns for Gas Chromatography Units used in such systems, methods and techniques are generally classified by bore size. Thus, micro-bore capillary columns will have internal diameters, (I.D.'s), in the order of 0.25 mm or 0.32 mm; and macro-bore or mega-bore capillary columns will have an I.D. in the order of 0.53 mm or 0.75 mm. Packed Columns for Gas Chromatography Units have much larger I.D.'s in the order of 2.0 mm to 4.6 mm. The respective internal diameters (I.D.'s) will affect the quantities and rates at which carrier gas with the volatile or semi-volatile component to be identified and quantified is passed to the Gas Chromatography Unit.
Purge and trap thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is particularly suited to the isolation and identification of volatile components such as flavors in foods and beverages and other volatile and semi-volatile components in other complex matrices. The general method for use with this equipment requires at least the following steps: